Gavin & Stacey – The Finale: After 17 years, it’s finally goodbye – but did Smithy say yes to Nessa?
It’s been five years since since we last caught up with Gavin and Stacey, and, more importantly, since Nessa got down on one knee to propose to Smithy.
Left on a Christmas cliffhanger, not since Rachel got off the plane has the nation been so invested in the fate of a will-they-won’t-they. Because Gavin and Stacey might have sweetly brought the worlds of Billericay and Barry together, but Nessa and Smithy’s anti-romance provided the comedy heart.
At a screening just before Christmas, series creators and stars James Corden and Ruth Jones were both emotional as they spoke about saying goodbye. This is a series that means so much to its cast and creators, as well as its millions of fans.
So. Seventeen years after that eventful first night in a central London hotel room (and en suite), one of the most beloved British comedies of all time has finally come to an end.
* Warning – some spoilers for Gavin & Stacey: The Finale ahead *
The Barry gang are on their way to Essex for a wedding. Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
Gavin and Stacey are getting ready for a wedding. There is talk of suit fittings and bridesmaids and Smithy standing at the end of the aisle.
It’s the night before the stag and the hen dos, an occasion in itself, and in Essex, Gavin’s mum Pam is stressing about the “flow of the buffet”. Dad Mick is now retired, so her home, her sanctuary, is filled with golf balls and “Sky Sports blasting”. In Wales, Stacey’s mum Gwen appears to have a secret and Uncle Bryn is worrying about his roof rack and whether everyone will be ready to hit the road in three hours and 11 minutes.
So it seems Smithy did indeed say yes. Hurrah! But does this all feel a bit too easy? In John Lewis for official wedding list business, we finally catch a glimpse of his bride-to-be.
And… she isn’t Nessa. She is, in fact, Sonia, the girlfriend he fleetingly introduced five years ago, who left the 2019 Christmas celebrations early. Back then, they didn’t appear to be a match made in heaven. Have things changed?
“I’m so excited,” Sonia tells her fiance. “Somebody’s already bought the handheld Dyson.”
Smithy is excited for his stag do. Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
Smithy is more concerned about his stag – “the most important day of my life”.
Elsewhere, Stacey is keen to spice up hers and Gavin’s sex life, Dawn and Pete have finally ended their marriage (but not their sniping), and Nessa and Smithy’s son, Neil the Baby, is now 16 and about to start a plumbing course.
Over the course of an hour-and-a-half, we find out what happened five years ago and what Smithy did, or didn’t, say to Nessa. In a turn of events no one was expecting, there was Cossack dancing involved. Now, she wants to bail on Sonia’s hen do – “full Gareth” – and later reminds Smithy she won’t be at the wedding itself, but not because she has other plans. “We both knows that.”
As the families and friends are reuniting for a wedding, the finale is filled with familiar faces: Budgie and co are back (of course, when there’s a stag do involved), Smithy’s little sister makes an appearance, despite him blocking her on Snapchat, and Dave Coaches also has an unexpected new role…
Dave Coaches is back! Pic: Toffee International Ltd/ Tom Jackson/ BBC
We also hear more celebrity anecdotes from Nessa – she “done The Knowledge back in the day” and drove a black cab, which is how she “fell in with Hale and Pace” – and jokes referencing everything from Byker Grove to Baby Reindeer.
And of course, the infamous fishing trip. The finale gets tantalisingly close to revealing what happened, but Bryn is saved by the bell; or in this case, Gwen’s omelette and a fire alarm.
As always, the laughs and emotion are perfectly balanced, with one particularly lovely moment coming from Mick’s stag-do speech. He and Pam weren’t able to have another child after Gavin, he tells the boys, but when a seven-year-old Smithy came into their lives, “it didn’t feel like there was anything missing anymore”. There’s no time to get too sentimental though – not when there’s a foam party on the horizon.
As the big day approaches, Smithy’s friends start to voice their doubts. We see he still has Nessa’s ring. But she’s thinking of leaving Barry and returning to the ships…
Jones and Corden were emotional at the BBC preview event for Gavin And Stacey: The Finale. Pic: PA
At the preview screening, Corden and Jones were joined by castmates, who all shared their experiences of filming the final scenes.
“I remember just getting to the end and thinking, my God, I’m never going to get through that,” said Joanna Page, who plays Stacey, of the first time she read the script. I [knew I was] going to find that so hard to film because they’re all my friends and it’s such memories.”
Larry Lamb, who plays Mick, described the script as “another miracle from the dream weavers” Corden and Jones, and became emotional as he added: “I do not think I can ever remember being so moved by something either that I’ve been involved with or not involved with.”
Alison Steadman, who plays Pam, said she was “completely choked” watching the episode back. “It’s been one of the best jobs of my whole career,” she said. And it was never hard, she added, for her and Lamb to feel “like husband and wife”.
Up there with presents, turkey and Wham!, Christmas TV specials are as much a part of the UK’s annual traditions come 25 December. The best, from the soap drama of EastEnders and Coronation Street to the comedy of The Royle Family and The Office, are always remembered.
In saying goodbye to Gavin and Stacey, Nessa and Smithy, Corden and Jones have left fans with a pretty much perfect ending. Tears, laughs, joy – it has it all.
The finale sums up what is at heart a show about family, the one we are born into and the one we build. Gavin & Stacey is loved because it is so relatable, particularly at Christmas, capturing so well those wonderful snapshots of life spent with very different friends and relatives, whose paths otherwise might not cross.
“You just want it to feel satisfying,” Corden said of the ending. The last day in particular, he said, “was probably the most emotional film set that I’ve ever been on”.
Expectations around a final episode for a show as big as this one are always high. Get it wrong, and you might end up with a petition on your hands.
Did Corden and Jones pull it off?
Let’s just say it was crackin’. Truth be told.
Kanye West’s Yeezy online shopping platform has been taken down after selling T-shirts featuring a swastika.
The rapper, also known as Ye, used a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday to send people to his website to buy the clothing emblazoned with the Nazi symbol – an image often used by the extreme-right.
The ecommerce platform Shopify, which hosts many online shops and businesses, has deactivated his site and his domain name yeez.com is being sold for $98,999 (£79,692).
Shopify said in an emailed statement to Sky News’ sister channel NBC News: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”
West’s representative is yet to respond to a request from NBC for comment.
The white T-shirts featured a black swastika on the front and were the only items for sale on the front page of yeezy.com.
No text or explanation accompanied the item, just the letters “HH-01.” They were available for $20 (£16).
Initially, West’s site showed a notice from Shopify which said the store was “unavailable”.
yeez.com was taken offline by Shopify, the e-commerce platform which was hosting his shop
But the site now redirects to the registrar GoDaddy, the platform which manages yeez.com, where a page shows the domain name is for sale.
GoDaddy has not yet responded to questions about the sale and whether it was enforced by the company or initiated by West.
The domain name yeez.com can be bought for $98,999 (£79,692)
The decision to sell the T-shirt triggered widespread criticism, including from the Anti-Defamation League (ADF) which posted a statement on X on Monday, describing the shirt sales as further proof of West’s antisemitism.
The organisation, formed to combat anti-Jewish bigotry and discrimination, explained that the swastika was adopted by Hitler and “continues to threaten and instil fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy”.
The ADF also said the T-shirt was labelled on Kanye’s website as ‘HH-01’ – suggesting this was code for “Heil Hitler”.
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West has in recent days been posting antisemitic messages on X, as well as writing “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi”. His account then had a “sensitive content warning” added to it before he posted a final message.
“I’m logging out of Twitter,” he wrote. “I appreciate [X owner] Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent.”
After his account was deactivated on Monday, his spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos issued an explanation.
“Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being,” he said in a statement.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism was joined by Friends star David Schwimmer in calling for Elon Musk to remove West from X over a string of offensive posts.
One of the most successful figures in hop-hip, West built up a fashion brand called Yeezy which began as a collaboration with Adidas. But the German sportswear giant cut ties with him in 2022 over his antisemitic remarks and eventually reached a settlement in October.
A pilot has died after a private jet owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil crashed into another plane at an airport in Arizona.
Neil was not on board at the time of the collision, which happened off the runway at Scottsdale Airport on Monday afternoon.
Neil’s girlfriend Rain Andreani and her friend suffered injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.
They were taken to hospital with the jet’s co-pilot, who was also injured.
Emergency responders work on Vince Neil’s plane after the collision. Pic: AP
“While details are still emerging, our hearts go out to the families of both the pilot who lost his life and the passengers who suffered injuries,” Motley Crue said in a statement.
“Motley Crue will announce a way to help support the family of the deceased pilot – stand by for an announcement very soon”.
Rain Andreani broke five ribs in the crash and the dogs the women were travelling with survived, TMZ reports.
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Pic: AP
Neil’s jet was arriving from Austin, Texas, when one of its two sets of landing gears failed.
The Learjet veered off the runway after landing and crashed into a Gulfstream 200 business jet.
Neil’s lawyer said the singer is “grateful for the critical aid of all first responders assisting today”.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the incident was under investigation.
Motley Crue enjoyed major success throughout the 1980s, selling more than 100 million records.
Vince Neil fronted the rock band from their formation in 1981 until he left in 1992.
He later reunited with the band in 1996 and fronted them until they retired in 2015, and again from the band’s 2018 reunion onwards.
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